arghman
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The short version:
13 of us hiked up the old carriage road to North Uncanoonuc Mountain in southwest Goffstown. My guess on the stats is a little less than a mile, and about 650 feet elevation gain. Ascent time: longer than book time, let's leave it at that. We lucked out on the weather -- I hear Boston & the Rt 128 area got 4-8 inches of snow. We only got 1/4 inch of snow, no freezing rain or sleet, and the clouds lifted at about 9am this morning so it was nice and sunny. Good views of Goffstown Village, Manchester, South Uncanoonuc (with all those towers), the New Boston Tracking Station with its 5 white radomes, and the mountains to the southwest including Monadnock.
The long version: (warning! dangerous! contains history! might be boring!)
Today we celebrated an important event. On November 13, 1934, the Goffstown Village Fire Precinct purchased about 90 acres, including the summit of North Uncanoonuc Mountain, from someone from Boston named Arthur Rotch, for $1000. The Fire Precinct paid $500 and the Society for the Protection of NH Forests (SPNHF) put in the other $500. Seems Mr. Rotch knew something about tax law, as the deed says "for one dollar and other valuable consideration" & thereby avoided NH's real estate transfer tax. (I'm told you can't get away with that anymore.) I know very little else about Arthur Rotch. [the only other clue is that the deed is witnessed by James J. Storrow. This was not, however, the famous James J. Storrow, who was the President of General Motors, for whom Storrow Drive in Boston is named after, who died in 1926, and who left in his will $100,000 which was used to purchase Franconia Notch in 1926. My guess is that the witness in this case is his son. ===> If anyone out there lives in/near Boston & is interested enough in historical things to help me find out more about Arthur Rotch / James J. Storrow III, please send me a private message.]
The Fire Precinct was formed in the latter half of the 1800's to arrange for water resources to protect Goffstown Village and the immediately surrounding area from fire. A reservoir was constructed on Whittle Brook in 1891; a second reservoir was constructed about 15 years later. The 1934 purchase was the first of several large land donations/purchases to secure watershed land above the reservoirs, including about 250 acres donated by Frank Parker in 1938, and another 190 acres purchased in 1953 through money donated by Frank Parker's widow. The Fire Precinct has since got out of the fire protection business and is now called the Village Water Precinct, which serves many homeowners and businesses in the Goffstown Village area. The Precinct now owns about 600 acres around the Uncanoonuc Mountains. (The Town of Goffstown owns land in the area as well, including most of the land around the summit of the South Mountain, which was purchased for about $50,000 in 1978, and about 100 acres on the North Mountain which was donated by Carl and Ada Barton in December 1979.)
This 1934 purchase is doubly important because it is the first known "conservation land" in Goffstown: it has deed restrictions which, among other things, require the Water Precinct to maintain it as a "public forest reservation" forever, with a reverter clause to transfer ownership to SPNHF should the Precinct fail to meet the deed restriction. (The parcel of 250 acres donated by Frank Parker a few years later also has the same restriction.)
I'm posting this because the guidebooks tell you next to nothing about the land ownership, and the Precinct does not post signs on its property (their chairman told me they used to have signs, but the signs were stolen or vandalized). We are very lucky that there are 800 acres of land in the area under public or quasi-public ownership.
The next time you go somewhere for a hike, think about what it took to make that land available to the public. There was essentially no public land in NH in 1870 (except for maybe a few small parks). Everything that is public now, including the WMNF, was re-acquired from private owners. Please don't take it for granted.
13 of us hiked up the old carriage road to North Uncanoonuc Mountain in southwest Goffstown. My guess on the stats is a little less than a mile, and about 650 feet elevation gain. Ascent time: longer than book time, let's leave it at that. We lucked out on the weather -- I hear Boston & the Rt 128 area got 4-8 inches of snow. We only got 1/4 inch of snow, no freezing rain or sleet, and the clouds lifted at about 9am this morning so it was nice and sunny. Good views of Goffstown Village, Manchester, South Uncanoonuc (with all those towers), the New Boston Tracking Station with its 5 white radomes, and the mountains to the southwest including Monadnock.
The long version: (warning! dangerous! contains history! might be boring!)
Today we celebrated an important event. On November 13, 1934, the Goffstown Village Fire Precinct purchased about 90 acres, including the summit of North Uncanoonuc Mountain, from someone from Boston named Arthur Rotch, for $1000. The Fire Precinct paid $500 and the Society for the Protection of NH Forests (SPNHF) put in the other $500. Seems Mr. Rotch knew something about tax law, as the deed says "for one dollar and other valuable consideration" & thereby avoided NH's real estate transfer tax. (I'm told you can't get away with that anymore.) I know very little else about Arthur Rotch. [the only other clue is that the deed is witnessed by James J. Storrow. This was not, however, the famous James J. Storrow, who was the President of General Motors, for whom Storrow Drive in Boston is named after, who died in 1926, and who left in his will $100,000 which was used to purchase Franconia Notch in 1926. My guess is that the witness in this case is his son. ===> If anyone out there lives in/near Boston & is interested enough in historical things to help me find out more about Arthur Rotch / James J. Storrow III, please send me a private message.]
The Fire Precinct was formed in the latter half of the 1800's to arrange for water resources to protect Goffstown Village and the immediately surrounding area from fire. A reservoir was constructed on Whittle Brook in 1891; a second reservoir was constructed about 15 years later. The 1934 purchase was the first of several large land donations/purchases to secure watershed land above the reservoirs, including about 250 acres donated by Frank Parker in 1938, and another 190 acres purchased in 1953 through money donated by Frank Parker's widow. The Fire Precinct has since got out of the fire protection business and is now called the Village Water Precinct, which serves many homeowners and businesses in the Goffstown Village area. The Precinct now owns about 600 acres around the Uncanoonuc Mountains. (The Town of Goffstown owns land in the area as well, including most of the land around the summit of the South Mountain, which was purchased for about $50,000 in 1978, and about 100 acres on the North Mountain which was donated by Carl and Ada Barton in December 1979.)
This 1934 purchase is doubly important because it is the first known "conservation land" in Goffstown: it has deed restrictions which, among other things, require the Water Precinct to maintain it as a "public forest reservation" forever, with a reverter clause to transfer ownership to SPNHF should the Precinct fail to meet the deed restriction. (The parcel of 250 acres donated by Frank Parker a few years later also has the same restriction.)
I'm posting this because the guidebooks tell you next to nothing about the land ownership, and the Precinct does not post signs on its property (their chairman told me they used to have signs, but the signs were stolen or vandalized). We are very lucky that there are 800 acres of land in the area under public or quasi-public ownership.
The next time you go somewhere for a hike, think about what it took to make that land available to the public. There was essentially no public land in NH in 1870 (except for maybe a few small parks). Everything that is public now, including the WMNF, was re-acquired from private owners. Please don't take it for granted.
